Torn
by ajr818
Summary: Bella has a difficult time dealing with her narcissistic boss, Edward, and the charming co-founder, Jasper. She thinks Edward is keeping secrets from her, but will she be able to deal with the consequences of what they are? AH.
1. Prologue

**A/N: So, I've decided to start another story. This one will be a lot more organized than Waking Up and Hopelessly Falling were. If you haven't realized yet, I decided to pull both WU and HF, because I was not happy with the quality. I may decide to eventually repost them, but they will have to be completely reworked all the way through. As of right now, I'm not planning on doing that, but I may change my mind. Anyway … enjoy! **

**Detochkina – Thanks so much, bb! You helped me out a lot and made this prologue much better than it was.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters. I do own this story though.**

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

"Edward, what the hell is this?"

I stood in the hallway, holding the file in front of me. Edward took in the file I was holding and a panicked look crossed his face.

"Bella, that is not what you think–"

I interrupted him, because no matter what excuse or lie he told me, I knew exactly what this was. I also knew exactly what this would mean for both us and the company.

"Really? It's not what I think it is? So, tell me Edward, is this not proof of what you've done and how you've driven this entire company into the ground? If that's not what this is, then why don't you explain it to me?" I was completely livid, and I knew he wouldn't tell me the truth. I'd had an inkling something wasn't right from the beginning, but I'd never thought twice about it. I had been so caught up in him, and now I regretted that.

I stormed up to him and slammed the file against his chest. His hand moved up to cover mine, not letting me go. I yanked my hand away and took a step back.

"Bella, I–"

"Are you really going to come up with another lie?"

"No, I'm not coming up with another lie."

Edward looked down at the file in his hand. I realized I couldn't stand around and wait for him to do something about this.

"Either you tell Jasper about this, or I will."

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><p><strong>Check out my blog. I sometimes post teasers on there and ramble on about other stuff. There also may be some Robporn ;). … (Just replace the "dot" with actual dots and take out the spaces and parentheses): www (dot) ajr818 (dot) blogspot (dot) com<strong>


	2. Miss Independent

**A/N: Thanks to remylebeauishot and Adt216 for their help on this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters. Although I wish I did own Edward. …**

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><p><em>Miss independent<em>

_Miss self-sufficient_

_Miss keep your distance, mmmm_

_Miss unafraid_

_Miss out of my way_

_Miss don't let a man interfere, no_

_Miss on her own_

_Miss almost grown_

_Miss never let a man help her off her throne_

_~Miss Independent by Kelly Clarkson_

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><p><strong>BPOV<strong>

I was looking at our kitchen table with different newspapers scattered across it. Each newspaper was open to the classified section where the jobs were listed. There were red circles all over the place. If you were looking at a bird's-eye view of them, it probably would have looked like a cluster of red targets. Too bad none of those targets had actually led me to a job.

"Stupid recession. Why is it so hard to find a decent job that doesn't involve fast food or stripping?" I had graduated with honors from the University of Washington with an English degree and found it impossible to find a job. What could I say? I had always loved books.

Rose chuckled at me. "Sweetie, I don't think you could pull off a stripping job. You're too much of a prude."

I turned to look at her. "I'm offended. I am _not _a prude."

"Okay, Miss I-haven't-fucked-a-guy-in-two-years."

So she might have been right about my not sleeping with anyone in two years, but it wasn't my fault I hadn't found a decent guy. I wasn't going to just go start sleeping around with anyone, or anything, with a dick.

"Whatever …"

"Oh! What about this one?" Rosalie had taken the task of looking online, while I had taken to the papers. I stood up and walked over to stand behind Rose.

_Seeking a motivated and confident person to join our team of insurance sales agents. No experience needed, will train. Send resume and cover letter to: First Rate Insurance, 2871 Main Street, Seattle, WA 98014._

"Selling insurance? I don't know if I could handle that. I'm not a very … sales-y."

"Sales-y, Bella? I thought you were an English major. Speak proper English, for God's sake!"

"Shut up. I'm just stressed from not having any luck. I'm not being grammatically correct right now. See if you can find anything in advertising or journalism. Something like that."

"Bella, I've been looking for things like that. I haven't found anything."

"Well, just look harder."

Rose scoffed at me and turned back to the computer screen.

I sat back down at the table, thinking of the conversation I had earlier in the month with my father.

"_Bella, I know that you want to live in Seattle, but if you can't find a job, then there is no reason for you to stay there. I told you I could get you a nice job here in Forks at the station. You could be a dispatcher."_

_I sat across from him in a booth at the diner._

"_Dad, I don't want to waste my degree. I worked so hard for it. I want to do something in writing or publishing. That's what I've always dreamed of doing."_

"_Well, if you could actually find a job doing that, then I'd say okay, but you can't keep living off your loans. You need to start paying those back soon. How are you going to pay for that?"_

"_I don't know."_

"_There you go. You need a job, and I'm offering you one."_

_I sighed. "I want a job that I'm actually going to enjoy. I'm not going to be one of those people that get into a field they don't even enjoy and are stuck in it for the rest of their lives. I'm going to do something I love, and that's it."_

_Dad was starting to get mad. The vein on his temple was starting to pulse slightly, and his face was becoming the color of the tomato on his BLT sandwich._

"_Oh, 'that's it'? Okay then. I'll just leave you to pay for this bill with the money you don't have coming in." He got out of the booth and walked out of the diner, leaving me with the bill exactly like he said._

That conversation was what had led me to the task I was currently tackling.

"Hey, I'm getting kind of hungry. Do you want anything? I was thinking of running down to Subway really quick," Rose said, turning to look at me from behind the computer.

"Yeah, that sounds good. Just get me my usual."

"All right. I'll be back soon."

Rose left the apartment, and I continued my never ending search through classified after classified.

My phone rang, and from the ringtone, I knew exactly who it was.

"Hey, Jake."

"Bells! How's the job hunt coming?"

"It's not, unfortunately. Pretty soon I might have to take Charlie up on his offer to work at the station."

"Sorry, babe."

"It's fine. Hopefully something will pop up pretty soon. Anyway … how's Tyler?"

Jake hesitated, and I already knew exactly what he was going to tell me.

"Well, that's also 'not.' We broke up last week."

"Hon, why didn't you call me? I could have driven in. We could have gone clubbing in Port Angeles until you forgot all about him."

"If we go clubbing, I'd rather go in Seattle than Port Angeles."

I chuckled. "Yeah, that's true."

"Tyler isn't even on my mind anymore."

"Why? Is there somebody else?" It wouldn't surprise me in the least. Jake was a sexy man and seemed to have a different guy every month. When I first met him, I was extremely attracted to him, with his russet colored skin and long black hair. But as soon as I heard him speak, my gaydar started going off–loudly.

"Maybe … okay, yes. His name's Jared. He works at a jewelry store in Port Angeles."

"Well, that didn't take long. Then again, it usually doesn't."

"Jared has a straight friend who he might be able to hook you up with." I could just picture the plotting smirk on Jake's face.

"Not going to happen, Jake. I'm not going on another blind date, especially not another one set up by you."

"Hey! James wasn't that bad."

"Okay, it wasn't bad when he stared at my boobs all night, or when he sat so close to me that I could feel his nasty onion breath on my neck every time he spoke, or when he forced a kiss on me when he dropped me off and drooled everywhere. None of that was bad at all."

"Fine, that one was a disaster. But this Sam guy seems nice."

"No thanks, Jake."

"All right. I guess I'll let you go since you won't let me set you up with anybody. Call me when you find out anything about a job."

"Will do."

It didn't take long after I'd hung up with Jake for Rosalie to come back. After she'd dropped my Subway bag in front of me, she threw a business card on top of it.

"There's your new job."

"Don't tell me you got me a job at Subway." I picked up the card and looked at it.

_Jessica Stanley_

_Executive Assistant to Edward Cullen, CEO and co-founder of Cullen & Whitlock Publishing_

_874 9__th__ Street, Suite 400, Seattle, WA 98014_

_Cell Phone: (206)555-4893_

_Office Phone: (206)555-5900_

_Email: jstanley (at) cullenwhitlockpub (dot) com_

"What's this?" I was getting somewhat excited, because the card was from a publishing house.

"Well, when I was in line at Subway, I was talking to the girl in front of me about how my crazy-ass roommate had me scouring the internet for publishing jobs. She whipped out her card and told me she was trying to find a temporary replacement for herself since she is going on maternity leave soon. She sounded like she was having trouble finding a replacement, so you should have a good chance of getting in. It's not an editing job or anything like that, but at least it gets you in the door. Plus, it's a job, and you need the money."

I jumped up out of the chair I was in, knocking it backwards, and ran over to Rose to hug her.

"Oh my God! You are the best! This is the one time I can thank you for talking bad about me to strangers. So, thank you."

Rose laughed and returned the hug. "Well, you're welcome. You know how I love to talk bad about you to strangers, so I guess this time it paid off."

We stayed in that position for a few minutes, and then Rose pulled away.

"You just need to call her to set up an interview. She said if you wanted to, you could call her cell today, and she could probably get you in tomorrow. She wants to get someone trained really soon, because she was supposed to already be on her leave but couldn't find anyone."

"I'm going to call her right now."

I grabbed the card and my cell from the table and ran toward my room.

I heard Rose murmur behind me. "Of course you are."

I shut my door behind me and sat down on my bed. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and excitement, then picked up my cell and dialed the cell number on the card.

"Jessica Stanley."

"Hello, my name is Isabella Swan. My friend Rosalie met you earlier today, and you told her about an opening for an executive assistant."

"Oh, yes! Did you want to come in tomorrow and interview for the position?"

"Yes, tomorrow is great."

"Okay, let me just look at the schedule and see when we can do it."

I stayed on the line while she looked, and I could feel the excitement rising up again, so I took another deep breath to try to calm myself.

"Okay, there's an opening at eleven AM. Does that work for you?"

"Yes, eleven is perfect." _Anytime would be perfect as long as I can land this job._

"Great! Do you know where we are located?"

"I have the address, so I should be able to find it."

"Okay, when you come in the building, just take the elevator to the fourth floor. Tell the receptionist you have an interview with me."

"Sounds great! Thank you so much!"

"No, thank you. Have a great day!"

"You too."

I hung up the phone, ran out the door, and found Rose painting her toenails on the couch. I just stood in front of her, jumping up and down with excitement and clutching my phone to my chest. I probably looked like a five-year-old on Christmas morning.

"So, what did she say?" Rose asked, looking at me as if I was crazy.

"I have an interview tomorrow at eleven." My voice was about five pitches higher than usual.

Rose smirked and went back to painting her toes. "Don't screw it up."

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><p><strong>AN: Reviews will get a teaser of the next chapter. ;)**

**Check out my blog. I sometimes post teasers on there and ramble on about other stuff. There also may be some Robporn ;). … (Just replace the "dot" with actual dots and take out the spaces): www (dot) ajr818 (dot) blogspot (dot) com**

**Follow me on Twitter for teasers and other stuff at: ajr818**


	3. Clumsy

**A/N: I'm taking some writing liberties with the way publishing works. Bear with me in regard to my publishing procedure ignorance.**

**Thanks to the-masticator and 2Shaes for their help on this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters. Stephenie Meyer does. I do own this story though.**

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><p><em>You got me tripping, stumbling, flipping, fumbling<em>

_Clumsy cause I'm falling in love_

_You got me slipping, tumbling, sinking, fumbling_

_Clumsy cause I'm falling in love_

_So in love with you_

_~Clumsy by Fergie_

**BPOV**

I walked into the massive building. The security guard at the door nodded at me, and I smiled. As soon as I hit the elevator, the nerves started to hit. My stomach started churning, and my palms were sweating.

The elevator was crammed with people. The men were in suits, and the women were in pantsuits or modest dresses. The oddballs were a woman and little boy dressed casually. I figured they were probably coming to visit daddy at work. When the elevator got to the fourth floor, I pushed my way out of the elevator and into the open space of Cullen & Whitlock Publishing.

"Hi, may I help you?" the receptionist asked me.

"Yes, I have an interview with Jessica Stanley at eleven."

"Right, right. You can have a seat in the waiting area, and she should be in to get you in a few minutes."

"Thank you."

I walked into the waiting area and sat in one of the standard waiting area cushioned chairs. I only had enough time to pick up a copy of Poets & Writers Magazine before Jessica walked in and called me back. We exchanged pleasantries as we walked toward an open office door. She motioned me toward a chair in front of a desk while taking a seat behind it.

I looked around the immaculate office. The color scheme was steely, consisting of grays, silvers, and blacks. Interspersed between some abstract paintings in bland colors were some black and white portraits of a long-haired, beautiful woman.

"So, Isabella …" Jessica folded her hands on the desk, looking up at me with calculating eyes.

"Please, call me Bella."

Jessica smiled before continuing. "Okay, Bella. What type of work experience do you have?"

"Well, when I was in high school, I worked at a sporting goods store as a cashier. Then during college, I worked as an administrative assistant in the Financial Aid office on campus. I also had an internship at a small Christian book publishing company my senior year of college."

"What duties did you have in your internship?" She moved her hands from the desk and rested them on her enlarged belly.

"Basically, I just did coffee runs for the editors, made copies, and near the end, I got to review some manuscripts."

"Well, in this position, you'll definitely be doing a lot of coffee runs and copies." Jessica smiled at me with a hint of mirth in her eyes.

"I definitely have experience with that." I chuckled.

"Do you have a resume and references for me?" Jessica asked.

"Yes, right here." I pulled my resume out of my purse and pushed it across the desk toward her. It was then I noticed the name plate on the desk. _Edward A. Cullen_.

So, this was the boss's office. That explained the somewhat masculine, rigid appearance of the office.

Jessica perused my resume and then set it down in front of her.

"I like what I see here, and you seem like a perfect candidate. With that said, I'm offering you the position. Do you think this is something you'd like to do?"

I inwardly shrieked but calmly answered, "Absolutely."

"All right. Well, if you're available, I can start training you today, and we can get you in as soon as possible."

"Yes, that's great." In the back of my mind, I wondered why I was being trained so early, but I was too excited to really dwell on it.

"The pay is fairly reasonable. You'll get $36 an hour."

I was completely flabbergasted. I never expected it would be _that _much. "Wow …"

"I know it's a lot. Mr. Cullen pays extremely well, but you'll deserve it."

I briefly wondered what she meant by that last comment but figured I'd dwell on it later.

"So, we'll just get some paperwork done, and then we can get you started," Jessica said with a smile.

"Great! Sounds good."

We then proceeded to go through the dull task of W2s and getting me into the system. When that was finished, Jessica took me on a tour of the office. Everyone seemed really nice although very busy, which was to be expected.

The whole training aspect took about six hours. There was so much information rolling around in my head, I felt like it was going to explode with words and phrases like "gripper margins", "verso", and "ARC" dripping out of my ears.

"I'll stick around for about a week before I take my leave," Jessica told me as we were leaving the building after we were finished. I was dead on my feet and just ready to go home and sleep. I couldn't understand how she did all of this while pregnant.

"When does Mr. Cullen come back from Chicago?" Jessica had told me when we first started my training that Mr. Cullen was in Chicago, meeting with the branch run by his sister, Alice Cullen.

"He'll be back after I'm gone. I'll probably leave on the 23rd, and he is coming back the 26th. He has some authors in that area he has to meet with while he's there, so you'll pretty much be on your own for a couple of days."

We walked by the parking lot, and Jessica started to head over to her car. I took the light rail since it ran right by my apartment, so this was where we would be separating.

"Well, I'm going this way, so I guess I'll see you tomorrow," I said, starting to walk in the direction of the rail stop.

"All right, eight AM tomorrow."

"I'll be here." Jessica waddled over to where I was standing and reached out to shake my hand.

When I finally got to my apartment, I went straight to my room and fell down on my bed. I still had my interview clothes on—a gray pencil skirt and navy blue button-down blouse—and I didn't even care.

Rosalie peeked her head in my room.

"So, I'm assuming it went well since you were gone for a good eight hours."

"Up, I af ta ga ack tomra."

"Can you please take your face out of that pillow, so I can understand what the hell you're trying to say?" Rosalie moved her hands to her hips, thrusting one to the side.

I glanced up at Rosalie's scowl and lifted my face out of the pillow. No matter how much I wanted to tell her to go to hell and just get some sleep, I knew she wouldn't give up that easily, and I wasn't in the mood to deal with her wrath right now. She could be a bitch when she wanted to.

"Yup, I have to go back tomorrow."

Rosalie got a huge smile on her face and jumped on top of me. I groaned and tried to push her off.

"I'm so happy for you! Now I don't have to worry about how we are going to pay the rent." I glared up at her, and she just smirked. "We should go out and celebrate. Let's go dancing!"

"Oh, hell no! I'm so tired right now, and I have to be there tomorrow at eight. There's no way I'm going out and having you get me drunk. I'm not going to my first real work day with a hangover. Not. Going. To. Happen."

"Come on, Bella! You need to live a little. You deserve it."

"Nope, not happening. I need to get some sleep." I looked pointedly between her and the door, silently telling her to get out.

"Fine, but we are going out tomorrow when you get back here. I never thought I'd see you go to sleep before nine."

"I did in college."

"That was your stupid idea to do that internship on top of Banner's Milton seminar and your capstone."

"I needed to get them done to graduate. It was my only option."

Rosalie scoffed and headed toward the door.

"Like I said, we'll do something tomorrow."

My head was already buried in the pillow, waiting for Rose to leave, so I could fall into my much awaited slumber.

My alarm went off at six the next morning, and I wanted to throw it at the wall. It had been too long since I'd gotten up that early. Instead, I turned it off and went to get ready for my first official day. I knew I'd need caffeine to get me through the day, so on the way to work, I stopped at the Starbucks across the street from the office building. After I'd purchased my White Chocolate Mocha, I started to walk toward the door when I heard a male voice call out behind me.

"Miss, excuse me. You forgot your keys." I turned around and saw him standing there. It was the guy who was in line behind me. He was tall, had chin-length blond hair, and looked to be in his late 20s to early 30s. He was wearing a black suit with a red tie, and it didn't escape me that he was extremely good-looking in a bad boy trying to act corporate type of way.

I made my way back to the counter where he was standing, holding out my keys.

"Thank you so much. I would have been so lost without these." He smiled down at me and set the keys into my open, awaiting hand.

"No problem. I know what it's like to lose keys. Not a good situation," he said with a chuckle.

I glanced down at my watch to check the time. I knew it was rude, but I didn't want to be late on my first day.

"I have to go. Thanks again!"

"Again, no problem."

With a little wave, I made my way out of the Starbucks and across the street to the office.

"Good morning, Bella."

"Morning, Angela," I greeted the receptionist. She seemed really nice and helped me out a lot yesterday when Jessica had something come up she had to deal with. We had really hit it off.

I made my way down the hall to where Mr. Cullen's office was and found Jessica sitting at her desk—soon to be my desk.

"Hi, Bella."

"Hey, Jessica."

"Well, we'll put you right to work," Jessica said with a smile. "First, you can take these messages down to Mr. Biers's office who is handling Mr. Cullen's correspondences while he's gone. When you come back, I can show you how to set up and adjust Mr. Cullen's schedule in the computer."

A few hours later, Jessica sent me to take a giant stack of accepted manuscripts to the printing department. The tower of manuscripts was so high that I was able to hold it in place with my chin. I was almost to the end of the hall where the printing department was located when a door suddenly opened to the right of me and someone walked out quickly. They knocked into me causing the manuscripts to slide from their place under my chin and fly to the ground. I dropped to my knees and started collecting them.

"I am so sorry! I need to start watching where I'm going." I didn't bother looking up at whoever had knocked into me. I was embarrassed enough—the new girl dropping things everywhere; it was almost a cliché.

Whoever knocked into me dropped to their knees next to me and started helping me pick up the manuscripts. I could tell it was a man, because they were wearing a black suit and had man hands.

"Wait a minute. You're Key Girl!" I looked up, and sure enough, it was the guy who had given me my keys at Starbucks. A woman who I had met yesterday walked by, giving me a small smile.

"Hi," I shyly replied.

"Hey. I'm Jasper. Are you new? I haven't seen you around before."

"Yeah, I was just hired in to replace Jessica Stanley."

"Oh, okay. So you're going to be Edward's new assistant. Good luck with that!" Jasper said, smirking.

His comment reminded me of Jessica's comment during my interview about how I would deserve what I was paid.

"Why do you say that?"

He chuckled and looked over at me. "Let's just say my partner isn't exactly the easiest guy to please or get along with."

It was then it dawned on me Jasper Whitlock, co-owner of the publishing house, was on his knees next to me, helping me pick up manuscripts. It seemed below him. I hurriedly gathered together the manuscripts and stood up. Jasper looked up at me and stood up too. I wasn't sure of the etiquette of thanking your boss, who you just realized was your boss, for getting on his knees to help you pick up dropped manuscripts.

Jasper, or Mr. Whitlock, shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down at his shoes near where we were kneeling not seconds before.

"You know, some of us get together Wednesday mornings before work at the IHOP down the street. You should come. I can introduce you to everyone. Wait, what's your name? You never told me, and I've just been thinking of you as Key Girl." Jasper chuckled, and I dwelled for a few seconds that he'd practically just admitted he'd been thinking about me. I regained my composure.

"Sorry. I'm Isabella, but everyone calls me Bella."

"Well, Bella, what do you think? Would you like to accompany me to breakfast tomorrow morning?" He smiled down at me, and I inwardly gasped at the look he was giving me. Some may have called it a smolder, but I chalked it up to me hallucinating from the fact he was ultimately one of my bosses, and he had just asked me to go to breakfast with him … and other people from the office. I had to keep thinking that, so I didn't dwell on the fact it had sounded like he'd asked me out. I didn't want to delude myself into thinking this strikingly handsome man would be interested in me.

"Sure," I said with a smile. His phone buzzed in his hand, and he looked down at it.

"I'm sorry. I have to go. We usually meet at six-thirty, but you don't have to be there that early if you don't want to. So, I'll see you there?" he said it as a question and looked hopeful, waiting for my answer.

"Yeah, sounds great."

And with a smile and wave, he was off, and I was standing in the same spot, watching him go.

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks for all of the reviews, alerts, and favorites from the last chapter. They made me extremely happy!**

**As with the last chapter (and future chapters), reviews get a teaser of the next chapter.**

**I'm submitting an outtake from Torn to the Fandom for Storms compilation. I was thinking of writing the conversation between Rose and Jessica about getting Bella a job when they were at Subway, but I am open to other suggestions. If you have any good ideas, leave them in a review. Also, if you would like to receive the compilation of submissions from some great authors in the fandom and support a great cause, you can find out how to donate at www (dot) fandom4stormrelief (dot) tumblr (dot) com.**

**You can find me on Twitter: ajr818**

**Also, check out my blog. I leave teasers and other goodies on there: www (dot) ajr818 (dot) blogspot (dot) com.**


	4. Unattainable

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! I hope you all liked the teaser you got with your review. ;)**

**Again, forgive my lack of publishing knowledge.**

**Thanks to RN4Edward and Twimarti for their help on this chapter! You guys are awesome!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or its characters. Stephenie Meyer does. I do own this story though, so don't steal!**

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><p><em>*/*/*/*/*/  
><em>

_Only when the goal_

_Is unattainable_

_Do I start to feel_

_Like I'm losing myself_

_~Unattainable by Little Joy_

_/*/*/*/*/*/_

**EPOV**

"You were supposed to have the next chapter to us two weeks ago." I was sitting in my hotel room in Chicago, talking to one of authors I was currently having issues coaxing a chapter out of.

"_I know. I'm just stuck at this one spot. I'm working on it, though. I just need about another week."_

_Damn authors can never meet a fucking deadline._

"Mr. Stewart, I've already given you an extra two weeks. The most I can give you is forty-eight hours. If you don't have the chapter to us by then, your contract will become null and void." My voice had the edge to it that it always did when I got pissed which, as of late, seemed to be happening constantly.

"_Okay, I'll get it to you."_ He seemed scared … just the way I wanted him.

"Good. Have a great day, Mr. Stewart."

"_You too, Mr. Cullen."_ I hung up my cell and went back to working on the contract that was pulled up on my laptop.

Coming to Chicago always seemed to stress me out. My sister, Alice, was here, and I loved seeing her, but the Chicago branch she ran always seemed to be less than what I wanted it to be. I had built this company from the ground up, and I wanted it run the way I envisioned. I loved my sister to death, but sometimes I regretted making her the CEO of this branch. Maybe nepotism wasn't always a good idea. I guessed I couldn't take complete credit for getting the company to where it currently was because Jasper was with me the whole way, but it was my idea, money, and potential clients that got it on its feet.

Something else that was also stressing me out and causing me to be extremely frustrated all the time was finding decent employees.

Finding a replacement for Jessica seemed to be an impossible task. We had already tried six different people in the past month, but no one seemed to be even competent enough to deal with a simple coffee run or manuscript delivery.

Jessica had called me earlier in the week to let me know she had hired someone, and she thought this person would be able to pull it off. I had yet to talk to her—Ms. Isabella Swan—but at this point, I wasn't really looking forward to it if the past tryouts had been any sort of indicator.

While hashing out the final details of a contract for a new book in a series we represented, I glanced down at the time on my laptop. It was almost two p.m. which meant at any minute, I'd be receiving a call from Jessica to get me up to speed with what was happening in Seattle.

As soon as that thought entered my head, my Blackberry started ringing. I answered it without looking at the caller ID, automatically assuming it was Jessica.

"Edward Cullen."

"Hey, man. How's Chicago?" Jasper's slightly Southern-accented voice came through the speaker.

I sighed, thinking of all the issues I was dealing with here but didn't want to worry him with. Alice was my problem to deal with.

"Great—just helping Alice deal with some of her more resistant authors." That seemed like a nonchalant response to that question.

"Ed, I know you better than you know yourself. What's really going on out there?"

_I thought Alice was the only one who claimed to have premonitions … and don't call me Ed._

I heard a beep on my phone and looked down at the screen. Jessica's name popped up, and I figured I'd be able to get out of answering Jasper's question, since I had another call.

"Jazz, I got another call. I'll call you later."

"Hell, no. Don't you try and pull that on me, Edward Cullen. I'll just call Alice and see what she has to say about everything." Damn it, he sure knew how to push my buttons. He knew I didn't want him talking to Alice, especially with their history. Guess I'd just call Jessica back.

"Fine. Alice has been letting authors slide on their deadlines. And when I say slide, I mean fucking stealing three bases sliding. You know Bradley Stewart? She's already given him an extra two weeks. And Carrie Jerkins … three weeks. I'm making calls left and right to make sure her authors are going to get their chapters in on time."

"Don't worry so much about it. Alice knows what she's doing. I'm sure it's not as bad as you think it is."

_Of course you'd say that. You're the laid back one, while I'm the fucking prick that wants to actually have books come out when we say they're going to come out._

"Whatever. I just want all of this shit taken care of. I should be back next Monday or Tuesday. I'm going to go now and call Jessica back, since you made me miss her call."

"Speaking of Jessica, have you talked to Bella yet? She's great."

"Who's Bella?"

"She's the new assistant that Jessica hired to replace her. Have you not even heard about her yet? I thought Jessica would be all over that."

It somewhat annoyed me that Jasper was already in cahoots—already using nicknames—with my new assistant, who I had yet to meet. "I was under the assumption the new assistant's name was Isabella."

"She likes to be called Bella. She's really nice. Don't try to sabotage this one before she even gets settled."

"Well, if she can handle the job, we'll be fine."

I heard Jasper scoff on the line. "If you call you being a complete Nazi fine, then I believe you."

"Jasper, I'm going to go before I say something I regret."

Jasper laughed. "All right, oh great one. I'll see you when you get back."

I hung up the phone without saying anything else. Jasper knew me well enough that he wouldn't be offended by it or take it personally.

I went to the contacts in my phone, scrolled down to Jessica's name, and hit the talk button, raising the phone to my ear. After a few rings, the answering machine came on, and I hung up the phone without leaving a message. When she was free, she'd call me back.

I set my phone back down on the table I was sitting at and turned back to my laptop to finish up the contract. Not two minutes later, my phone started ringing. I looked down at the phone, this time to make sure it was Jessica, and picked it up when I saw it was.

"Edward Cullen."

"Sir, this is Isabella Swan. Ms. Stanley told me to call you back and speak to you about the manuscripts we've been working on."

_Here we go. Time to find out if she's a complete idiot or not._

"Okay." I paused, waiting for her to continue and inform me of what was going on back in Seattle, but the line stayed silent. _Great, another idiot._ "Are you going to tell me about them or not? I don't have all day," I snapped, reaching my hand up to grip my hair.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Cullen. Well, we received Mr. Hartman, Mrs. Caulfield, and Mr. Terrance's new chapters, and we also received ten new manuscripts today that need to be looked over."

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" I snarled.

"No, sir," her timid voice murmured.

"Take the manuscripts to editing tonight to have them looked over. Then take the submitted chapters to their assigned editors."

I heard her say, "Yes, sir," before I ended the call.

From that conversation, I knew she wouldn't last the first week after I came back.

/*/*/*/*/*/

_And I know some day that it'll all turn up_

_You'll make me work so we can work to work it out_

_And I promise you kid_

_That I'll give so much more than I get_

_I just haven't met you yet_

_~Haven't Met You Yet by Michael Bublé_

_/*/*/*/*/*/_

**BPOV**

"Fuck!" I yelled, grabbing the pillow from behind me and chucking it at the wall. I stared at the screen of my laptop, cursing my job. I already hated my boss and hadn't even met him yet.

I heard the door to my bedroom creak open and glanced up at the door, seeing Rose peek her head in.

"Is everything okay in here? Last time I heard you scream that word, I knew to keep out of this room. Although, I may have forgotten, since it was so long ago." Rose winked at me, and I glared at her.

"Ha ha. I'm just sitting here, wallowing in my own self-pity, and you decide to throw in my face my lack of a sex life. Thanks. You're a great friend," I said sarcastically, closing my laptop. Rose walked over from the doorway and sat down next to me on my bed.

"What's up? You got in pretty late tonight."

I scoffed, thinking of all the work that needed to be done before I'd left work for the day. When I had talked to _him_ on the phone, it hadn't sounded like a lot of work, but I hadn't taken into consideration the editors would have me look over every new manuscript too. I'd told Jessica I could handle it all because I needed to show her I could handle the job when she left. That's what I'd been doing before I freaked out—thinking about my boss and his asshole-y ways. This was the exact job I'd always wanted, but yet I already felt like I was trapped in it. I knew that, with any job I worked at, I'd most likely either have a shitty boss or a coworker that annoyed the fuck out of me. I'd had these issues in the past, and I'd dealt with them, but I'd never been this frustrated over a coworker or boss before. Just Mr. Cullen.

"Having issues with my boss, that's all."

A confused look passed over Rose's face. "Jessica? I thought she was really nice when I met her. A little hormonal, maybe, but nice."

"No, not Jessica. She's great. I'm talking about my actual boss, Mr. Cullen."

"The guy who's in Chicago that you haven't even met yet?" Rose grabbed one of the throw pillows on my bed and started pulling at the stitching. I yanked it out of her hand, not wanting her to ruin it, and she glared at me.

"Yes, the guy who's in Chicago that I haven't even met yet."

The glare immediately left her face, and she gave me a sympathetic look. I swore she was bipolar. "Sorry, kid."

"He's such an asshole. Now I know why it took Jessica so long to find a replacement. I don't know if the pay is worth it, but I'm determined to stick with this job. This is the field I want to be in, and if I have to deal with an asshole of a boss until I can get into a better position, then so be it."

Rose started grinning at me, and I knew she'd gotten another one of her crazy-ass ideas. "You know, why don't you be snarky right back to him? Give him a taste of his own medicine. Maybe he's so used to his assistants being submissive that if you're different, it might throw him off a bit, giving you an advantage."

I highly doubted that would give me an advantage. "Or it would just piss him off more and cause me to be fired sooner."

"I don't know. That's what I'd do, if I were you." She picked up the throw pillow again and started pulling at the threads. I sighed, giving up on trying to stop her.

"Whatever." I opened my laptop back up and tried to get back to work on one of the manuscripts, thinking she'd get the hint and leave.

"What about Starbucks guy slash co-owner of company?" I'd called Rose while I was at work and told her about both of my encounters with Jasper. I glanced up at her, seeing she had a devious look on her face, and shut my laptop again.

"Jasper? He asked me to go to breakfast with him tomorrow with some other people from the office."

"Like a date?" she questioned, looking as confused as I had felt when he'd asked me.

"I don't know. It seemed strange the way he asked me. I might just be crazy and hallucinating, but it kind of seemed like he thought of it as a date."

She got a concerned look on her face. "Just be careful. If he is thinking of it as a date, you could get into a lot of trouble. He is technically one of your bosses, whether he is your direct supervisor or not."

I nodded. "I will."

"Okay, I'll leave you to your work, since you've been subtly giving me hints to get the fuck out for a few minutes now." She winked at me, and I laughed, catching the throw pillow when she threw it at me.

Rose left my room, and I went back to work on manuscripts, not seeing her for the rest of the night. I was glad she must have forgotten about going out.

/*/*/*/*/*/

"Hey, Bella! Over here!" I turned my head to the right where I heard the voice come from and spotted Jasper and some other people sitting at a long table.

I made my way to where they were, and Jasper stood up, pulling the chair out next to him and waiting for me to sit in it. I moved to get to the chair, and when I passed him, I felt his hand hover over my lower back, guiding me into the chair. After I was seated, he pushed it in a bit before sitting in his seat next to me. I turned to him, and he grinned at me.

He leaned toward me, bringing his face next to my ear. "I'm really glad you came," he whispered.

In my head, I was freaking out because all I could think about were Rose's warnings from the night before. So far, everything was pointing in the direction of him thinking of this as a date.

"Guys, this is Bella." Jasper pointed me out to everyone at the table before turning to me and continuing. "Bella, this is Ben, Carmen, Tanya, Victoria, Tyler, and Lauren," he said, pointing to each person as he said their name. "Bella is Edward's new assistant."

"Good luck with that." The woman named Tanya scoffed and then went back to eating her hash browns. I didn't respond because I already knew I was probably in over my head when it came to Mr. Cullen.

The waitress came over then and asked for my order. She left and came back shortly with the cup of coffee I'd ordered, telling me my food would be up shortly. I thanked her, and she left.

For the majority of the time, I just listened. I caught on very quickly that everyone here was upper management in the company. That struck me as something else that was odd, since I was just an assistant.

Jasper continually tried to include me in the conversations, but I felt very out of place. Ben, who was sitting on Jasper's other side, seemed nice and spoke to me a bit. Everyone else seemed to mostly ignore me, aside from the comment from Tanya about my being Mr. Cullen's assistant.

When I finished my food and the waitress brought out my check, I pulled my wallet out of my purse to get my debit card. Before I could do anything, though, Jasper grabbed the check, put a card in the folder, and handed it to the waitress.

I turned to him, astonished that he'd have the balls to pay my check without even talking to me about it.

"You didn't have to do that," I whispered, not wanting anyone else at the table to hear our conversation.

"I wanted to." He grinned at me and then grabbed his coffee cup, taking a sip.

The waitress came back with his card and slipped it to him, thanking him for his patronage. I turned away from Jasper and looked back around the table. I noticed Lauren glaring at me with contempt. She obviously had noticed what he'd done and probably thought the same thing I thought was going on.

I stood up from the table, not wanting to be there any longer, and said goodbye to everyone, not receiving any kind of response except a nod from Ben.

I made my way out of the restaurant and started heading toward work, thinking of everything that'd happened at the breakfast, everything that Jasper had done, and how each sign seemed to be pointing toward him thinking of this as a date.

I was interrupted from my inner reflections by my name being called out. Turning behind me, I saw Jasper sprinting toward me. I hadn't really noticed his clothes before since he was sitting down most of the time, but seeing him run toward me, I looked at what he was wearing. Today, he had on all black—a pair of black dress pants, black button-down shirt, black sport coat, and a black tie. When he caught up to where I was, he put his hands on his knees and bent over, panting hard.

"Jesus, I really need to work out more often." He stood back up and looked over at me. "Can I walk you to the office?"

I shrugged. "Sure." I started walking, and he fell into step next to me.

"So, have you talked to Edward yet?"

I glanced up at him, and he was looking at me expectantly.

"Yeah, I talked to him on the phone yesterday. Jessica wanted me to get practice in letting him know what's going on when he's not here."

"How'd it go?"

I scoffed and then shot my hand up to my mouth when I realized what I'd done. Jasper must have seen my expression, because he started laughing.

"That bad, huh?"

"Let's just say it didn't go as well as I hoped it would have."

"I'll give you some advice when it comes to Edward. Most of the time, yes, he is a complete dick. He's been through a lot, though, so he's bound to have some issues after everything that's happened to him. Just give him some time to come around. He will eventually. In the meantime, I guess you'll just have to suck it up. I'll try to be a buffer if I can, but he can be pretty ruthless when he wants to be. Just stick it out, and he'll come to like you … or at least tolerate you. If you have any problems with him, let me know, and I'll try to do the best I can to help." Jasper grinned at me before looking forward again.

Well, most of what he said crushed my dreams a bit, but at least I knew it wouldn't always be like this … if I was lucky. I did wonder a bit about what Mr. Cullen had been through in his life, but I wasn't about to ask Jasper that.

"Thanks for the advice and help," I said as we entered the building and approached the elevator.

"No problem," he said, hitting the up arrow on the elevator, even though it was already lit up.

When the elevator opened, we both made our way inside. Before the doors closed, though, there was a rush of people, and they all tried to cram into our elevator. I was pushed back and moved right against Jasper's chest. Suddenly, his arms came up and wrapped around my waist from behind, and he held me against his chest so I wouldn't be jostled around by the other people in the elevator. The elevator stopped at every floor, and people got on and off. I was just holding my breath, waiting for us to get to the fourth floor. It felt nice being held against Jasper's chest, but my gut told me it was wrong, and that was keeping me from fully enjoying it. When we finally reached the fourth floor, Jasper let go of my waist, and we pushed through the people in front of us to get to the elevator door.

When we were outside the elevator, Jasper waved goodbye to me without saying anything and practically ran down the hallway toward his office.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I hope you liked this chapter. Again, thank you so much for all of the reviews, favorites, and alerts. It means a lot to me that you guys are enjoying this story as much as I'm enjoying writing it!**

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	5. The Ultimate Cover Up

**A/N: Thanks for the response to the last chapter! I'm glad you guys liked it. This chapter is probably the one you've been waiting for—Edward's back! ;)**

**Thank you to MaryJaneStew and Twimarti for their help on this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or its characters. Stephenie Meyer does. I do own this plotline though.**

* * *

><p>*/*/*/*/*/**  
><strong>

_Two-thousand miles, I'm hopeless and broken_

_You're gutless and hoping so running to home_

_And this isn't getting any easier_

_They won't understand it_

_What you've hidden from them_

_This isn't getting any easier_

_~The Ultimate Cover Up by The Audition_

_/*/*/*/*/*/  
><em>

**BPOV**

Things had gotten a bit easier after a few days of being without Jessica. That first day was hell, though—dealing with all of the manuscripts coming in, keeping the schedule up to date, setting up appointments. When Jessica was with me doing all of those things, they seemed easier for some reason. Another difficult thing I had to deal with was talking to _him _on the phone and listening to his messages.

And that was what I was doing now—listening to another one of his infamous messages, the most recent one.

"_Ms. Swan, I don't know what you are doing there, but I received a call from Mr. Sanchez about rescheduling a meeting. When I told him to call my secretary, he told me he had tried and never received a call back! I'm paying you to work. If you can't do that, then you're gone. It's that simple."_

Well, for the record, _Mr. Cullen_, the only reason I never called Mr. Sanchez back was because he called me _twenty minutes_ ago, and I've been working on the manuscripts you're having me go over. Fucking impatient son-of-a-bitch.

The phone rang, and I looked at the caller ID. I saw it was Mr. Cullen and picked up.

"Edward Cullen's office. This is his assistant, Isabella. How may I help you?"

"_Ms. Swan, have you called Mr. Sanchez back yet, or are you continuing to dally around, not doing any work?"_

I resisted the urge to be snippy right back to him. "I was just about to call him before you called, sir."

"_Well, I suggest you get that done as soon as possible. I don't appreciate getting calls from authors about scheduling issues. That's your job, not mine."_

"Yes, sir," I gritted through my teeth.

"_I'm just calling to let you know I'm going to be coming back into the office this afternoon. I've arrived at the airport. I just need to go home, drop my things off, and I'll be in."_

I inwardly started swearing, hoping he'd stay away forever. "Thank you for the call, sir." I heard the line click and knew he'd hung up.

After I dropped the phone on the cradle, I looked over at the pile of manuscripts on my desk that still needed to be finished. I groaned and picked up the phone, calling Mr. Sanchez to reschedule his appointment.

After I'd finished talking to him, I pulled up the scheduling file on my computer. When I went to type in Mr. Sanchez's new appointment time, the file froze up. I swore to myself, moving the mouse erratically around trying to get it to fix itself. Eventually, the mouse stopped moving also, and I reached down to reboot the computer. The screen went black, and when I hit the button again to restart it, the entire screen turned blue, and I knew exactly what that meant.

I swore some more colorful words to myself because I had a lot of scheduling left to put in the file, and my computer decided it wanted to crash on me. I knew I needed to have all of the scheduling issues taken care of before Mr. Cullen came back, so I called IT to see when they could come over and fix it.

Unfortunately, they were having issues with the internet in the editing department, so I was pretty much screwed for the next five hours until they could get over here.

I pulled the flash drive out of the computer and sat it on my desk, staring at it. I thought about calling Jasper to see what he thought I should do, but I was trying to stay away from him as much as possible. After what had happened in the elevator, he seemed kind of distant. I also wanted to put some space between us since he was pretty much my boss, and I knew absolutely nothing could happen between us … if that was what he wanted. It was a pretty messed-up situation.

I suddenly remembered Jessica had left me the password to Mr. Cullen's computer. I had seen her use it before she left, so I assumed it would probably be okay for me to use it, at least to get the schedule updated. If I could get everything done before Mr. Cullen came in, I'd be okay.

Picking up the flash drive off my desk, I made my way into Mr. Cullen's office, which was right behind my desk. The last time I had really sat in here was when Jessica was here. She'd been gone three days already, and I had tried to avoid going into the office as much as possible. I only went in when absolutely necessary, and that was only to walk in to get something and get out immediately.

I sat down behind the desk and booted up the computer. After I put the flash drive into the computer, I brought up the 'My Computer' screen to open up the flash drive.

I noticed there was a file that was hidden. I knew it was a hidden file, because it looked almost translucent compared to the other files. The name of the file was _WIU839-34V-10B5_. That threw me off. Who would name a file a bunch of letters and numbers? It also piqued my interest, and I wanted to open the file to see what was inside. I knew it was wrong, and I could lose my job for it, but it was like Pandora's Box; I absolutely had to open it. It was like a compulsion.

Opening the file, I saw there were many other files—hundreds of other files. They all had those strange letter-number combination names. I scrolled down to see if there was anything different, anything that caught my eye that I might have a chance of deciphering, but found nothing.

I sighed, about to close it out, when I heard the last thing I wanted to hear at that moment.

"What do you think you're doing?" a male voice snarled.

I don't know who, or what, I was really expecting to be standing there. I knew I'd never heard the voice before, at least not in person. When I glanced up, my breath caught in my throat. I wasn't sure if it was from fear, surprise, or both.

I knew he was in his late-twenties from the year of the college diploma hanging on the wall, but the man standing in front of me was definitely _not _how I pictured Mr. Cullen to look.

The man standing in front of me was … beautiful. That was the only word in my vocabulary I could think of to most accurately describe him, and I don't even think that word came close to doing him justice. Even seeing the dark circles under his eyes from fatigue didn't take away from his beauty. His reddish-brown hair seemed to be sticking up all over the place, like he had been running his hands through it with frustration—which was probably the case. His eyes were a beautiful green color and seemed to be swirling with anger at the moment. His jaw looked like it could cut glass, and there was a slight stubble covering it. The sleeves on his light blue button-down dress shirt were rolled up, showing off his forearms. From the way his shirt fit, I could tell he worked out and internally wondered if he had abs. My eyes ran over his navy dress pants to his shiny black shoes.

In the back of my mind, I knew he was talking to me—or probably yelling at me—while I was ogling his body, but part of me didn't seem to care. The other part of me seemed to wake up, and I shook my head a bit, looking back up into his face.

I could tell he was angry because his face was turning red, and he was glaring at me.

"I asked you a question! What do you think you are doing at my desk? I don't remember telling you it was okay to stay in here."

I discreetly moved my hands to the keyboard that was in the sliding drawer under the desk and hit the ALT key and F4 to close the file I was snooping in.

"I'm sorry, sir. My computer crashed, and IT can't get up here to fix it for another four to five hours. I needed to finish updating the schedule, and I assumed it would be okay if I used this computer, since I have access to all the files anyway." I knew I shouldn't have added that last bit from the files I'd just found, but something made me do it, just to jab at him a bit for being such an asshole all the time.

"You shouldn't assume things, and it is not okay for you to just use my computer without my permission or myself present. Is that clear?" He glared at me, and I inwardly thought about how beautiful he was when he was angry. I shook that thought from my head, though, because I knew it would get me nowhere.

"Yes, sir," I answered, pulling the flash drive from the computer and figuring I'd finish the schedule later.

I moved to go past him, but his hand shot out to grab my arm. When his fingers wrapped around my arm, a tingle swept through me.

I glanced up into his face, and he just stared back at me. There was no anger on his face this time, just a blank expression. After a few seconds, he seemed to snap out of it.

"Get me an espresso from the Starbucks across the street." He let go of my arm and made his way past me toward his desk. I walked out of the office and shut the door behind me, leaning back against it. One of the girls from the printing department, Maggie, walked by and shot me a sympathetic glance. I took a deep breath and pulled away from the door, walking over to my desk to grab my keys and the company card to get him his coffee.

The last thought I had before I stepped in the elevator I knew to be absolutely true.

_That man will be the death of me._

_/*/*/*/*/*/  
><em>

_Well my heart didn't skip a beat_

_When I saw you standing there_

_Looking like some kinda angel_

_Like you were walking on air_

_And the Earth didn't move_

_When you first said my name_

_I didn't feel a thing_

_No, not me_

_My heart didn't skip a beat_

_~This Ain't No Love Song by Trace Adkins_

_/*/*/*/*/*/  
><em>

**EPOV**

"I'm sorry, Mr. Sanchez, but I don't handle scheduling issues. You'll have to call my assistant, Ms. Swan, to deal with that." I had just gotten off the plane and was making my way through the airport toward baggage claim. Mr. Sanchez had called me, adamant on rescheduling his appointment, and that was not my job.

"_I did, but she never called me back. That's why I was hoping to call you to reschedule."_

I was about ready to explode. I was already having issues with this new assistant, and I would bet my Aston Martin that she wouldn't last through the end of the week.

"Don't worry. I'll call her right now and see what's going on. You'll be receiving a call from her shortly." As I hung up the phone, I pushed my way through the throng of people standing at the entrance to the baggage claim. I went to my contacts and scrolled through the names until I arrived at _Ms. Isabella Swan_. Hitting the 'talk' button, I waited until the voicemail came on.

"_Hello. You've reached Edward Cullen's office. We are not available to take your call at the moment, but please leave your name, phone number, and a brief message, and we will call you back as soon as possible. Thank you."_

_Beep!_

"Ms. Swan, I don't know what you are doing there, but I received a call from Mr. Sanchez about rescheduling a meeting. When I told him to call my secretary, he told me he had tried and never received a call back! I'm paying you to work. If you can't do that, then you're gone. It's that simple." I ended the call, slid the phone in my pocket, and continued my way toward the conveyor belt to pick up my luggage.

One reason why I hated traveling so much was because of the stupid people you had to deal with. How hard is it to pick up a bag off a conveyor belt? Baggage is not the place to stop to chat. Wait until you get out of my way to do that.

I was about ready to punch the woman in front of me. She was talking with another woman about some movie that had recently come out or something. They were standing right in the way of where I needed to be to get my bag. Everyone else around was waiting for bags, but they just had to stand there, discussing some British actor like he was a fucking god or something.

A man next to them got his bag and moved away from the conveyor belt like he was supposed to. I moved up to where he had been standing and picked up my bag that was just about ready to pass. When I turned around, one of the women was staring at me, and I glared at her before moving away from the belt.

Once I was outside the airport, I hailed down a cab and gave him the address to my apartment. Sitting in the back of the cab, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called Ms. Swan. This time, she picked up before the voicemail did.

"_Edward Cullen's office. This is his assistant, Isabella. How may I help you?"_

"Ms. Swan, have you called Mr. Sanchez back yet, or are you continuing to dally around, not doing any work?" I ran my hand through my hair, waiting for her answer.

"_I was just about to call him before you called, sir."_

_Of course you were_, I thought sarcastically.

"Well, I suggest you get that done as soon as possible. I don't appreciate getting calls from authors about scheduling issues. That's your job, not mine." If this was going to happen constantly, she'd be gone within days.

"_Yes, sir."_ I could tell she was getting angry with me and was trying to keep it reined in. I smirked at that.

I figured I should probably let her know I was coming in today, so it wasn't that big of a surprise. I could be an asshole and not tell her, surprising her to see if she did anything wrong, but I figured the first time I would give her a heads-up and not be that big of a dick. "I'm just calling to let you know I'm going to be coming back into the office this afternoon. I've arrived at the airport. I just need to go home, drop my things off, and I'll be in."

I heard her say, _"Thank you for the call, sir,"_ before I hung up.

The cab arrived outside of my apartment building. I threw a twenty at him, which was more than the fare, telling him to keep the change. I grabbed my bag and got out of the cab, heading for the front of the building.

It didn't take me long to get everything in my apartment situated. When that was finished and I'd changed clothes, I grabbed my wallet, keys, and laptop bag and went down to my Aston Martin.

It didn't surprise me that my phone started ringing when I was almost to the office. I picked it up, knowing who it was and why they were calling.

"Hello, Father."

"_Son. How's the publishing business?"_

I chuckled at my father's attempt at small talk. I knew exactly why he was calling and just wished he'd get to the point. "It's fine," I said, turning onto 9th Street. "How's Mom?"

"_She's doing a bit better. I know she'd love for you to visit."_ He was always trying to guilt-trip me into going back to Alaska to see my dying mother. No matter how badly I wanted to see her, he knew exactly why I couldn't go back.

"I have some time off next month. I might make a trip out there." He and I both knew that wouldn't happen.

"_I don't understand why you won't come see her. We don't know how much longer she'll be here." _I could hear him choking up, and I almost scoffed at the absurdity of that. After what he'd done to her …

"Why don't you just get to the point of why you called? I'm pulling up to the office right now, and I'd like to end this."

"_You're not in the office? Just call me back when you get there, and we'll take care of it."_ I knew that was the reason he'd called.

"No problem, Pops." I ended the call before he could say anything else. I parked the Aston Martin in my spot and made my way into the building.

As I walked through the building, a lot of people said hello—mostly out of obligation. I wasn't really interested in talking to anyone, so I said a curt hello in reply and went on my way before they could say anything else. I was known to be a dickhead, so I knew I could get away with just about anything around here without anyone thinking I was any ruder than usual. That was just the way I was.

I saw my office in the distance and noticed Ms. Swan was not sitting at her desk outside of it. I figured she must have been out doing something, or just somewhere slacking off.

The door to my office was open, which I found strange, but pushed it to the back of my mind. I walked into the room and stopped in the threshold, taking in the sight in front of me.

She was … stunning. Her long, brown hair was cascading down her shoulders to the top of her breasts. I looked to her lips and saw how full, red and … kissable they looked. I shook my head at that thought because I knew there would be absolutely no kissing. Her brown eyes were intently looking at the computer screen. My computer screen … _Shit!_

"What do you think you're doing?" I snarled. I was freaking out a bit on the inside, hoping she didn't see anything she wasn't supposed to.

She looked up at me and gasped. I almost gasped too, seeing her look at me that way. I noticed her eyes trailing down my body, and I inwardly smirked. I pushed that thought away, though, because I needed to stay pissed off. She could have seen something on that computer she wasn't meant to see.

"I asked you a question! What do you think you are doing at my desk? I don't remember telling you it was okay to stay in here." She looked like a deer caught in headlights. I felt a twinge of remorse I'd never felt when I reprimanded any of the other assistants, but stifled it.

"I'm sorry, sir. My computer crashed, and IT can't get up here to fix it for another four to five hours. I needed to finish updating the schedule, and I assumed it would be okay if I used this computer, since I have access to all the files anyway."

When she mentioned something about her having access to all the files, I wasn't sure what way to take it. I wasn't sure if she was insinuating she'd seen the files she shouldn't have, or if she just believed all of the files on our computers were the same. That doubt scared me. "You shouldn't assume things, and it is not okay for you to just use my computer without my permission or myself present. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

She got up, moved around the desk, and started heading toward me. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I reached my hand out to stop her. I didn't even have a reason. I just had this compulsive need to keep her with me.

When I touched her, I felt warmth start to radiate through my body, starting at my hand where I was grasping her arm. I realized I needed to come up with a reason—and fast—for why I stopped her. I thought about what her job was, and coffee automatically popped up in my mind.

"Get me an espresso from the Starbucks across the street."

I released her arm from my grip and moved past her to go toward my desk. I needed to move away from her to even think clearly. She left, closing the door behind her.

I sat down behind my desk and pulled up the file she shouldn't have seen. I looked through all of the files to see if anything was tampered with or anything. I didn't see anything amiss, so I closed out of the file and breathed a sigh of relief.

Knowing I should call my father to deal with what needed to be dealt with, I pulled out one of the manuscripts I was working on, wanting to put off that conversation as long as possible.

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><p><strong>AN: I wonder what's going on with Edward and his father! I guess we'll have to find out more in the next chapter.**

**I cannot thank you guys enough for all of the reviews, alerts, and favorites I've been getting in my inbox. It makes me feel special.**

**As a reminder, if you want to check out the banner, blinkie, and playlist for this story, you can find the links on my profile.**

**As usual, if you review, you'll get a surprise in your inbox!**

**I thought this update would be the perfect time to pimp out some of the stories that are currently owning me.**

**The first one is **_**Washed Up**_** by xrxdanixrx. This is a great E/B story where Edward rescues Bella after she washed up from the river on his property, and Bella has lost her memory. It's starting to get really good!**

**The second one is **_**Words With Friends**_** by Nolebucgrl. Bella is chatting with and playing a game of Words With Friends with who she thinks is Edward Cullen, the actor she has a crush on. **

**Both of these stories are really good, and I highly recommend you check them out if you haven't already!**

**You can find me on Twitter: ajr818**

**Also, check out my blog. I leave teasers and other goodies on there: www (dot) ajr818 (dot) blogspot (dot) com.**


	6. Toxic

**A/N: OMG! I am soooo sorry this chapter has taken so long to get out. I hope y'all are still with me! **

**As a few of you may know (I've talked about it on Twitter), I went to Army basic training back in January. Well, while I was there, I got injured and was medically discharged. So, I have finally gotten back into writing after taking some time to figure things out.**

**Thank you to Juji-loo and thalia-csiny for your help on this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or its characters. Stephenie Meyer does. I do own this plotline, though.**

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><p><em>Baby can't you see<em>

_I'm calling_

_A guy like you_

_Should wear a warning_

_It's dangerous_

_I'm falling_

_~Toxic by Britney Spears_

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><p><em>When we last heard from Bella: <em>

_I moved to go past him, but his hand shot out to grab my arm. When his fingers wrapped around my arm, a tingle swept through me._

_I glanced up into his face, and he just stared back at me. There was no anger on his face this time, just a blank expression. After a few seconds, he seemed to snap out of it._

"_Get me an espresso from the Starbucks across the street." He let go of my arm and made his way past me toward his desk. I walked out of the office and shut the door behind me, leaning back against it. One of the girls from the printing department, Maggie, walked by and shot me a sympathetic glance. I took a deep breath and pulled away from the door, walking over to my desk to grab my keys and the company card to get him his coffee._

_The last thought I had before I stepped in the elevator I knew to be absolutely true._

_That man will be the death of me._

* * *

><p><strong>BPOV<strong>

Edward didn't say a word to me when I dropped off his coffee. He didn't even look up from the papers he was looking over. I wasn't surprised this was the case, but it irked me nonetheless.

Sitting down at my desk, I picked up the first manuscript in the towering pile and started to read. I got to about the fourth page when I heard his door open behind me. I set the manuscript back down on my desk and glanced behind me, wondering if he needed something. He walked toward my desk with a laptop in hand.

"Use this until IT fixes yours. Just hold on to it until we leave. I don't want to be bothered until then—understand?" He briskly set the laptop down on my desk, covering the manuscript I had been looking over.

"Yes, sir," I murmured. He nodded once and turned to go back into his office.

I waited until I heard the door close to boot up the laptop. There must have been only one user with no password because it automatically showed the "welcome" screen and logged in to an account. When everything was done loading, I glanced behind me to double-check that Mr. Cullen's door was shut. Ensuring that it was, I quickly brought up the files on the computer and looked through them. I didn't see any like the ones on the desktop in his office and quickly gave up. The files were not likely on the laptop, and I was concerned Mr. Cullen would come out of his office.

After I'd updated the schedule on my flash drive, I started working on the manuscripts on my desk again. I had gotten through a few of them when I heard a throat clearing next to my desk. I looked up, and one of the guys from IT was standing there. I stood up, and he sat down in my chair, instantly getting to work without saying a word to me.

"Thanks for coming to fix it." All I got was a small nod in response, so I gave up trying to have a conversation with him.

I grabbed the laptop and took it over to one of the chairs sitting outside of Mr. Cullen's office door and started working on writing up cover sheets for the manuscripts I'd reviewed.

"So, how's Cullen treating you?" I looked up and saw Jasper standing directly in front of me. I smiled up at him, instantly forgetting my problems with Mr. Cullen and that I'd been trying to keep my distance from Jasper.

"Okay, I guess. I haven't really talked to him much, because he just locks himself up in the office and doesn't want to be disturbed."

A confused expression crossed Jasper's face. "That's strange because when the other assistants were here, he was always on them to do stuff. It was like he wanted to push them until they inevitably failed. I wonder why he's not doing that to you. Don't get me wrong—I'm glad he's not. It's just peculiar."

I nodded. "What can I do for you, Jasper?" It still felt weird calling him Jasper and not Mr. Whitlock, but he'd insisted. He _was_ the boss.

Jasper grinned. "How do you feel about going out to lunch? You can take a break, while Riley works on your computer." He looked so hopeful, and it was about time for my break anyway. I set the laptop down on the floor beside the chair and stood up.

"Let me just call Mr. Cullen and let him know."

I made my way over to my desk and picked up the phone, dialing Mr. Cullen's line. After speaking with Jasper, I'd already forgotten about his request not to be disturbed, so when he picked up the phone with his gruff response, I was momentarily stunned. Then I remembered his request.

"_What is it, Ms. Swan? I thought I made myself clear, or do I need to somehow physically implant everything I say inside your head?"_

_Fuck a duck—just my luck._

"Sir, I was just calling to inform you that Mr. Whitlock"—Jasper gave me a look—"stopped by and asked me to accompany him for lunch. I was just letting you know where I would be." The line was silent for a few moments.

"_Be back in twenty minutes."_ _Click._

"Whatever you say," I whispered to myself as I sat the phone back on the cradle. Jasper must have heard me, though, because he was smirking when I looked back up at him. Riley was still busy working on my computer and wasn't paying me any attention.

"Ready?" he asked, hitching the strap of his messenger bag further up his shoulder.

"As I'll ever be."

Ten minutes later, we were seated at a small table at the bistro across the street from the office building. I was almost half way through my grilled chicken panini when Jasper spoke up.

"I need to tell you something." I looked up at him, and he seemed nervous all of a sudden. I was unsure of the reason why, but whatever it was, it obviously wasn't a positive topic.

"Okay …" I dragged the word out as I sat my panini back down on my plate.

"It's about Edward. Um … Mr. Cullen."

I nodded, urging him to continue. Any insight I could get into the ill-mannered workings of my aloof boss's mind would definitely be welcomed.

Jasper took a deep breath and then sat down his own sandwich.

"Can you please be careful around him? He—he's not always been the most stable person in the world." I could obviously see that just by being around him for two minutes—not even that—but the way Jasper said it sent chills up my spine. His comment made me think of the strange files I'd found on Mr. Cullen's desktop and his reaction when he'd found me using his computer.

"Why do you say that?" I took another bite of my sandwich to try not to show my reaction.

Jasper just stared at me for a few seconds, like he was thinking over his words … or how much he actually wanted to tell me.

"A few years ago, there was an incident, and let's just say he didn't have the best reaction in response. It wasn't a work-related incident, but ever since then, he hasn't quite been the same. I just don't want anything to happen to you." He looked and sounded so sincere. It tore me up a little that I had intended to avoid him. Even though he was one of my bosses, he wasn't my direct boss. There was nothing saying I couldn't have a simple friendship with him.

I nodded. "I'll be careful."

He suddenly looked down at his watch. "We have five minutes to have you back in Mr. Cullen's clutches. Let's hit it," he said with a grin. I knew he was trying to lighten the mood after his warning, but I could tell he wasn't even buying it himself.

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><p><em>It makes me ill<em>

_To see you give_

_Love and attention at his will_

_And you can imagine how it makes me feel_

_To see you with him_

_~It Makes Me Ill by NSync_

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><p><em>When we last heard from Edward: <em>

_I released her arm from my grip and moved past her to go toward my desk. I needed to move away from her to even think clearly. She left, closing the door behind her._

_I sat down behind my desk and pulled up the file she shouldn't have seen. I looked through all of the files to see if anything was tampered with or anything. I didn't see anything amiss, so I closed out of the file and breathed a sigh of relief._

_Knowing I should call my father to deal with what needed to be dealt with, I pulled out one of the manuscripts I was working on, wanting to put off that conversation as long as possible._

* * *

><p><strong>EPOV<strong>

Feeling a little bit bad about snapping at Isabella about the computer incident, I took her my personal laptop to use. I had to double check before I handed it off to her to make sure there weren't any incriminating files on there for her to find. I definitely couldn't handle her snooping in my business and finding something she shouldn't on top of everything else.

I continued to try to convince myself the reason I'd let her use my laptop was because I needed her to get work done, not just because I found her extremely attractive and felt a little sorry for her. It was difficult, though, because I knew I was avoiding her for that reason. I had always been on top of my previous assistants, making sure they weren't fucking up. I knew if I tried to do that with Isabella I might actually do something inappropriate, which would just make everything a million times worse than it was.

As I was trying to brace myself for the call with my father that I knew I had to make, the office phone rang, and I instantly grew agitated. I'd specifically told Isabella I was not to be bothered.

"What is it, Ms. Swan? I thought I made myself clear, or do I need to somehow physically implant everything I say inside your head?" I growled.

"_Sir, I was just calling to inform you that Mr. Whitlock stopped by and asked me to accompany him for lunch. I was just letting you know where I would be." _Fucking Jasper. Why did he have to become so attached to her? I instantly grew jealous he was just taking her out to lunch, not having to deal with any of the bullshit I was, and I envied him. No matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, I wanted her. It was then I realized I still hadn't responded to her. Knowing I couldn't keep her from going to lunch and having absolutely no excuse to keep her here, I had to let her go.

"Be back in twenty minutes." I hung up the phone before she could say anything … or before I could.

I waited a few minutes to ensure they had already left. I didn't want any interruptions. When I mustered up the courage to make this monthly phone call, I picked up my cell and dialed his number.

"_Son, I thought I would have heard from you sooner."_ _Of course you did, you prick._

I ran my hand through my hair, something I usually did when I was stressed, which was becoming more frequent as of late. "I had some business to take care of at work. Are we doing this or what?"

"_Yes. Do you have the account open yet?"_

I rested my fingers on my keyboard, taking a deep breath as I always did every time I had to do this, then I typed in the account information for the offshore savings account that my father had me transfer funds to every month. _Why the fuck am I doing this again?_

"How much this time?"

There was a short pause on the line before he answered. _"Two million."_

I just about choked when I heard the amount. He'd _never_ made me transfer that much. The most I'd ever transferred had been $800,000, and that was just last month. The amount seemed to keep rising every month.

Knowing better than to question him, I submitted the transfer and instantly felt the guilt I always did whenever I had to do this.

"_Is it done?"_

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Yes."

"_Good. I'll talk to you in a month." Click._

It should have made me sick I only spoke to my father once a month to do this exchange, but I couldn't even find it within myself to care. The one thing that did make me sick, though, was not speaking to my mother … and it was all _his _fault. Even with her being sick, I couldn't muster up the courage to speak to her—let alone come face-to-face with her. I hadn't seen or spoken to her in over three years, and it killed me.

While wallowing in my self-agony, I heard Isabella laughing from outside the office door. I started to smile until I heard her talking to Jasper. He was the one making her laugh that way. I wanted that to be me. It would never happen, though. It couldn't happen. I was too fucked up to get close to anyone.

_If I can't have her, Jasper can't either. _With that thought, I picked up the phone and dialed her desk number. I could still hear the pair of them talking, but Isabella picked up the phone when it started to ring.

"_Yes, Mr. Cullen?"_ Her voice sounded a bit off, like maybe she was afraid of me. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"I have some tasks I'd like for you to get started on. Can you come into my office please, so we can discuss them?" That was probably the nicest I'd ever been to her. I wondered why, and I chalked it up to me being vulnerable after what I'd just done for my father. That seemed like the most logical explanation … besides the explanation I wasn't willing to completely admit to myself.

"_Yes, sir."_

Just a few seconds later, she opened the door and walked into my office. I tried to see if Jasper was still out there while she had the door open, but I couldn't.

Not really having any specific thing for her to do at the time—just wanting to keep her away from Jasper for my own selfish reasons—I told her to write up cover letters for the manuscripts I'd looked over on my desk. It was the best I had.

She looked at me strangely but picked up the manuscripts anyway, ensuring me she would have it done as soon as possible.

As she was walking out, I had the urge to thank her, but I resisted. I could only handle being nice to her so much in one day, and I just didn't have the energy today—definitely not today.

We both made it through the day mostly scot-free. Her computer had been fixed for a while, but she followed my order of not disturbing me for the rest of the day.

When we were getting ready to leave, she brought the laptop back into my office. I was putting some manuscripts into my briefcase that I was planning on looking at when I got home when she came in.

"Here's your laptop back, Mr. Cullen." I took it out of her hands and went to put it inside its bag. "Thank you for letting me use it, sir."

I looked up at her, and she was looking down at the ground. I could have sworn she was blushing, but that was probably just wishful thinking on my part. Being in the same room with her, it was harder to ignore how beautiful she really was. She had this very shy, innocent persona, and I was definitely drawn to that.

I pushed down those feelings, though, knowing there was absolutely nothing I could do about them.

"Good night, Ms. Swan," I said, walking past her and out of the office.

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><p><strong>AN: I have started posting a new story that is a little bit different from this and some of the other things I've written. It's called Unique, and you can find it on my profile. What's _unique_ (love word play!) about it is that it is told from multiple POVs. Not just Bella and Edward. Also, it might take a little bit longer for Edward to come into the picture than usual. I have to set everyone's character arcs up before I can deal with Edward making an appearance. It's actually completely written. I just have to go through and edit the chapters as I go along, since I originally wrote it years ago, and my writing wasn't very good back then, lol! **

**There also should be an update to my story, Dreams, soon also, if any of you read that story. Anyway, I'll let you get to the chapter, since it's been a long time coming!**

**Check out my blog for some teasers and other goodies: .com.**

**Twitter: ajr818**


	7. These Walls

**A/N: This chapter is going to have a Jasper POV, just so we can get into his head and see what he's thinking. ;)**

**I'd also love to hear your theories on what you think Edward is up to.**

**Technically Necto is in Ann Arbor, but I'm gonna pretend it's in Seattle for this story. **

**Thanks to Trilby97 and Batgirl8968 for their help with this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or its characters. Stephenie Meyer does. I do own this plotline, though.**

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><p><em>These walls can't be my haven<em>

_These walls can't keep me safe here_

_And now I guess I gotta let them down_

_~These Walls by Teddy Geiger_

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><p><strong>BPOV<strong>

"Hey, Bella!" The front door slammed, and I looked up from the cover page I was writing for the manuscript I'd just looked over.

"How was your day?" I yelled from where I was sitting on my bed. Rose poked her head through the door of my bedroom with a Cheshire grin on her face. I sighed. "What now?"

"You know how we were going to go out clubbing a few weeks ago to celebrate your new job," she said, plopping herself down on my bed, "and you said that you didn't have the time, or you were too tired, or some other dumb excuse? Well, I'm making you go. Tonight. No excuses."

She reached her hand over and pushed my laptop closed. I threw my head back and groaned.

"How did I know this was going to happen? Why can't you just forget about stuff like a normal person?" I really did not want to go out clubbing. I was never the type of person to go out and get drunk. I really hated going out with Rosalie, because she usually ended up bringing someone back to the apartment, and I'd have to hear them going at it through the wall. Not a fun thing to try to fall asleep to.

"Not taking no for an answer this time. Get up and go get ready." She grabbed my hand and started yanking me out of the bed.

"Ugh! Fine!" I got out of bed and walked over to my closet, knowing there was no way I'd be able to get out of it this time. I'd just have to get it over with.

Two hours later we pulled up to Necto and paid our cover. As soon as we were inside, we headed straight for the bar. Thank God it was a Friday and I didn't have work the next day, because although I wasn't a big drinker, I was definitely going to need something to get through the night.

Eventually Rose grabbed my hand and dragged me onto the dance floor. At that point I was just drunk enough that I could dance without feeling like an idiot.

We were dancing to "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO when I saw them. They were standing by the bar, ordering beers by the looks of it. When they turned around to face the dance floor, I saw Edward had a Heineken and Jasper was holding a Bud Light. They were talking to some blond-haired guy next to them.

I practically moaned when I saw Edward. He was wearing a light blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, showing off his forearms, and dark blue slacks that made his butt look amazing. As a second thought, I looked over at Jasper and saw that he was going for a much more casual look. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a Skid Row t-shirt.

I looked at Rose, instantly feeling like I'd need to block her view of them, but then I remembered that she had no idea what they looked like. I breathed a sigh of relief at that and continued dancing, trying to push them from my mind and losing myself in the music.

A few minutes later, I noticed Rose had stopped dancing and I figured she'd spotted her prey for the night. Sighing, I turned to her and she was staring across the room. I followed her gaze, curious as to whom the lucky guy was and I saw Edward, Jasper, and the blond guy sitting at a table, right directly in her line of vision.

"Oh my God, Bella, that's him!"

Confused, I turned back to her, wondering what the hell she was on about and praying that she hadn't somehow figured out it was Edward and Jasper she had been staring at. "Who?"

"Jessica's husband, or boyfriend, or whatever! He was there when she told me about the job for you! See that blond guy over there? The short-haired one, not the other one." _Obviously because the other one is Jasper._ "We should go over there and talk to him! Tell him to thank Jessica for the job offer or something."

Knowing I needed to come up with a reason why we couldn't do that without telling her that he was with Edward and Jasper, I started to move backwards farther into the crowd on the dance floor.

"I don't think now is a good time, Rose. He seems pretty occupied with his friends. Let's just go back and dance. You know how much I love this song!"

Rose just looked at me strangely. "Bella, you hate Taylor Swift."

I hadn't even realized that Taylor Swift was playing, but that was my opening to get her to forget about the group of guys sitting over in the corner.

"What are you talking about? I might hate Taylor Swift, but this is a really good song."

She shook her head, but then grabbed my hand and started pulling me toward their table. "Let's just go over and say hi, then we can get out of here. I think I'm done dancing for the night. I'm kind of tired."

"Then why don't we just go home, and forget saying anything. If you're that tired, there's no sense in wasting our time saying anything to him. Let's just go."

Rose gave me a look that told me she'd caught on to what I was trying to do. It didn't surprise me, though, because I was being completely obvious about wanting to avoid their table without a good reason.

"Okay, Bella, what's really going on? Did you sleep with one of them or something?"

I sighed and leveled my gaze at her. "The other two are Edward and Jasper, my bosses."

Rose's head snapped back over to the table so she could get a better look at the pair of them. "Damn, girl. Why didn't you tell me how hot they both were? How can you handle being around them all day?" I felt the blush rise to my cheeks. "Well, let's go over there and say hi! That's even more reason. You can't just see your bosses in public and ignore them. That's rude."

She grabbed my hand and started to drag me. Like when she forced me to go to the club, I knew there was no way I was going to get out of it now that she knew who they were, so I just needed to suck it up and get it over with.

As we made our way closer to the table, Jasper noticed us and tapped Edward on the shoulder, pointing in our direction. When Edward turned to look at us, I figured his expression would be angry that he had to deal with me outside of work, but instead his eyes widened as he looked at us. He really didn't even look at Rosalie—just at me. That was probably wishful thinking on my part, though. Jasper gave us an appreciative glance as we descended on their table.

Without a word, Rosalie sat down next to Jessica's husband, or boyfriend, or whatever, leaving me the options of either standing and looking like an idiot, or sitting down next to Edward on the opposite side. Reluctantly, I sat down next to Edward and felt him move a little closer to Jasper.

"So, I recognized you from Subway when Jessica told me about the job for Bella"—Rose gestured to me—"and I thought we should say hi. Hi, I'm Rosalie," Rosalie said, smiling at the blond guy.

"Hi, I'm Mike," he said, holding his hand out to Rose. "Jessica's boyfriend-slash-baby daddy-slash-future fiancé." He grinned at the both of us and took a pull from his own Bud Light.

"Why don't we buy these ladies a drink, Ed?" Jasper said, punching Edward in the shoulder, but Edward just turned to glare at him.

I turned my head to look down at the table, embarrassed that Rosalie was putting me through this, and noticed that Edward's hand was gripping the tabletop so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. _Oh, God, why does he have to have such nice hands?_

"We'll definitely take a drink. Right, Bella?"

I shook myself out of my stupor and looked up at Rose, who was eyeing me expectantly. "Yeah, sure."

"You look nice tonight, Bella," Jasper said, and I felt the blush rise to my cheeks. I couldn't even bring myself to look up. He was my boss. What was he doing?

"Thanks," I murmured, staring down at my peeling black nail polish. I peeked up at Rose, and she was looking at Edward strangely.

Jasper flagged down one of the VIP waitresses walking by and asked her to get two Cosmos for Rose and me.

"So, Bella told me that she works with you two," Rosalie said, shifting her gaze back and forth from Jasper to Edward.

I mentally slapped her. I told her they were my bosses, but she made it sound like I told her that they were my colleagues, but they obviously were not. _Way to make me look like an idiot, Rose._

"Yeah, she's pretty fun to have around." Jasper glanced at Edward. "Right, Edward?"

I forced my gaze to Edward, and I saw him clench his jaw. I wondered why Jasper was downplaying their seniority at work in response to Rose's question.

"Okay, well, not to leave you guys with two Cosmos, but I think Bella and I should get out of here. I'm pretty tired."

Jasper's face fell, but he said goodbye to us as we stood to leave. Mike also said goodbye. Edward just sat there and stared at his Heineken.

The entire car ride home was quiet, but when we got back to the apartment, Rosalie finally hit me with the Spanish Inquisition.

"What the fuck is going on with you and Edward?"

I shot my gaze up to her from where I sat on the couch. "What are you talking about? Nothing is going on with me and Edward. He hates my guts."

Rosalie scoffed. "Yeah, right. That man is practically in love with you."

_Okay, now she's really lost it._ "I have no idea where you got that idea, but it is the complete opposite. He makes my life a living hell."

"Um, have you never heard of boys hurting girls they like?" she said, sitting down next to me on the couch. "That's like … built into their DNA or something."

I shook my head. "That may be true, but it's not like that with Edward and me. He's just a jackass in general to everyone."

"Well, that wasn't really why I was saying that he was practically in love with you, babe. Did you see the way he looked at Jasper when he said that you looked nice tonight? I seriously thought he was going to drag him out of there and beat him to a pulp! He looked murderous."

"Did you ever think that the reason was because he's my _boss_, and Edward was just looking out for Jasper so I didn't sue the company for sexual harassment or something? He was probably trying to tell him to shut the fuck up so I didn't get the wrong idea."

Rosalie looked at my most likely beet-red face. "How do you feel about both of them, Bella? Seriously."

I sighed. "I mean, it's obvious that they're both attractive, but I'm not going to start a relationship with either one of them. For one, they're both my bosses. Two, one of them is a complete asshole, and although the other is nice enough, starting something with him would be wrong. And three, if I forgot to mention this one, _they're both my_ _bosses_!"

Rosalie stood up and walked toward her bedroom. Right before she shut her door, she called out, "Well, you could always quit."

* * *

><p><em>Everybody's looking for love<em>

_Ain't that the reason you're at this club_

_You ain't gonna find it dancing with him_

_I got a better solution for you, girl_

_~In My Head by Jason Derulo_

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><p><strong>JPOV<strong>

"Hey, man. You wanna meet up with Mike and me at Necto?" I was on the phone with Edward. We didn't go out together much anymore, especially since we got the company up and running. Edward was always trying to make sure everything was perfect, and although I wanted the company to be profitable, I didn't want it to overtake my life, like it was Edward's.

He'd been pretty pissed off with me ever since the shit that went down with his sister. That was the one thing I truly regretted in my life.

"_I can't. There's way too much work that needs to be done here. It's almost to the point where I might have to call Ms. Swan in to help me get some of this done. I have five manuscripts that need to be sent up to printing by Monday morning. Why aren't you fucking here working on some of this?"_

I chuckled. "Because, my friend, that is not my department. I work in Art Design, remember?"

"_Fuck off."_

I sighed. "Dude, come out with us. Leave that stuff for tomorrow. Get your mind off work for a little bit."

I heard his groan through the phone. _"Fine. I'll meet you there in twenty."_

As I pulled up outside of Necto, I saw Edward's Audi A7 parked a few spots down from where I was parking my Dodge Ram pickup. I inwardly envied the cool cars he had. I could afford one, but I just didn't want to spend my money on that.

I hopped out of my truck as I saw Edward get out of his car, and we met Mike on the way in.

After we'd gotten our beers, it didn't take long for us to find a table. Apparently, Edward—being the over-analyzer he is—called on his way here to request a VIP table; probably dropped a pretty penny to get it on such short notice, too.

"So, how's the new assistant working out for you, Edward?" Mike asked as we sat down at the table. "Jess said she was pretty good and thought this one would probably be the only one that could handle you." Mike laughed, and I looked over at Edward.

He looked really angry and was gritting his teeth. What was up with him and Bella?

"Let's not talk about work, man. Tonight, I just want to chill out and get drunk," I said, reaching for my Bud Light and taking a swig.

"I'm cool with that." Mike also took a pull from his beer.

As I sat my beer down on the table, I saw the devil herself being practically dragged to our table by a blonde.

I poked Edward on the shoulder. "Hey, man. Look who's here." He glanced to where I was gesturing, and I saw his eyes bulge.

_Fuck, he can't like Bella; I like Bella. Maybe he's checking out the blonde._

When the blonde sat down in the seat next to Mike, Bella sat down next to Edward. I noticed that he moved infinitesimally in my direction.

As the blonde started talking to Mike and introduced herself as Rosalie, I tried to piece in my head how I could figure out if Edward really had feelings for Bella.

"Why don't we buy these ladies a drink, Ed?" I punched him in the shoulder, and the look he shot me was vicious.

That look could have just been because I was suggesting buying an employee and her friend a drink, but I had to make absolutely sure that my assumption was correct, because if it was, a full-scale war was about to break out. I had to keep Bella away from him; he could ruin everything for me.

I realized that Rosalie was talking to Bella, but I didn't really pick up on what they were saying. I was too engrossed in my own thoughts and plans.

"You look nice tonight, Bella." I glanced at Edward to gauge his reaction, and he looked like he was going to kill me. _Oh, fuck, it's on._

Needing to diffuse this situation a bit, I called out for the waitress to get Bella and Rose some Cosmopolitans. I needed to get my thoughts straight so I could figure out how I was going to keep Bella away from Edward. He didn't deserve her.

Rosalie told us that she knew we worked together, and before I could really think, I blurted out, "Yeah, she's pretty fun to have around." Instantly realizing how I could taunt Edward a little bit with this, I glanced over at him. "Right, Edward?"

He didn't even bother looking at me. He just looked straight ahead, clenching his jaw.

Rosalie looked to Edward, and she came up with an excuse about being tired and that they had to leave. I knew it was bullshit, but I couldn't call them on it, so I let them go with a goodbye. It didn't escape my notice that Edward completely ignored them.

The problem with Edward is that he is completely obvious when he likes someone. Instead of being like the usual guy and taking charge, he just ignores them. I'm not sure if he thinks his job is better than a woman or if he's just that self-conscious, but this one he could not have. It hadn't escaped my notice the way Bella looked at Edward sometimes at work. There was no way he could have her. She was mine.

_Ring. Ring._

I glanced over at Mike as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. After he'd lifted the phone to his ear, I instantly knew it was Jessica from the defeated look on his face.

"Jess needs me to go to the store right now and pick up some pickles and ice cream. Fucking cravings." Mike stood up. "I'll talk to you guys later."

I waved to him and made my way out from the middle of the round booth. There was no way I could sit here by myself with Edward.

He looked up and saw me leaving, so he also got up.

When we'd reached his car, he gritted out, "When it comes to Bella, cut it out. You're her _boss_."

And with that, he slammed the door and was gone. _Game on, motherfucker._

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><p><strong>AN: Apparently there's gonna be a full-scale war now according to Jasper. We'll see how that goes for him. ;)**

**Check out my blog for some teasers and other goodies: ajr818 . wordpress . com (remove the spaces).**

**Twitter: ajr818**


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